Monday, December 31, 2012

As 2012 draws to a close, Syria is descending into hell. At least 40,000 people, and likely many more, have been killed, while millions have been forced to flee their homes. Over the past 12 months, Bashar al-Assad has steadily unleashed ever-greater military firepower in response to what began as peaceful protests by the Syrian people. Starting with tanks and heavy artillery in February, the Syrian regime escalated over the summer to using attack helicopters and fighter jets. In recent weeks, it has begun firing Scud missiles at its own population.

The world has failed to stop this slaughter. President Obama has declared that his “red line” is Assad’s use of chemical weapons. Many Syrians, however, have told us that they see the U.S. red line as a green light for Assad to use all other weapons of war to massacre them with impunity. Many of those weapons continue to be supplied directly by Iran.

Senators edged closer to a potential deal Monday that could contain the damage from a looming wave of tax hikes, even as it became clear that Congress would likely miss a midnight deadline for action -- leaving taxpayers unsure about how much they'll be paying in 2013.

For the near-term, it appears a tax hike will technically go into effect on Jan. 1. The House is not expected to vote on the issue Monday night, and the Senate still has not produced a bill on which Congress could act.

(Reuters) - At least 23 people were killed and 87 wounded in attacks across Iraq on Monday, police said, underlining sectarian and ethnic divisions that threaten to further destabilize the country a year after U.S. troops left.

Tensions between Shi'ite, Kurdish and Sunni factions in Iraq's power-sharing government have been on the rise this year. Militants strike almost daily and have staged at least one big attack a month.

The latest violence followed more than a week of protests against Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki by thousands of people from the minority Sunni community.

No group claimed responsibility for any of Monday's attacks, which targeted government officials, police patrols and members of both the Sunni and Shi'ite communities.

Combat Medic - U.S. Army Pfc. Kristina Batty dons a headscarf to meet with female Afghan villagers in Afghanistan's southern Ghazni province, May 5, 2012. Batty, a medic for a female engagement team, is assigned to the 82nd Airborne Division's 1st Brigade Combat Team. U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Michael J. MacLeod

Interview with Ahmed Rashid: The West Should 'Change Its Approach To Failing States' -- Spiegel Online

Ahmed Rashid, one of the world's foremost experts on Afghanistan, once welcomed US intervention in the failed state. But in a SPIEGEL interview, the Pakistani journalist says the West's model for development is fundamentally flawed and must be changed.

SPIEGEL: Mr. Rashid, in 2014 the West will withdraw from Afghanistan. To what extent have they failed?

Rashid: In my view, the Western model of influencing the development of third world countries is doomed to failure. The West does not understand how to deal with states that no longer have any authority and are threatened by dissolution. Their efforts failed in Iraq as well as Afghanistan. They are simply not capable of promoting the indigenous economy. Neither USAID nor Germany's international technical cooperation agency, the GIZ, are able to get a grip on it. They provide temporary assistance, no more than that. Many billions of dollars flooded into Afghanistan, but without any significant effect.
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WASHINGTON—The State Department and Pentagon had no viable way to rescue Americans in Benghazi, Libya, falling short of their responsibility to develop plans to evacuate U.S. citizens, according to the first bipartisan congressional investigation of the Sept. 11 assault.

The Senate report, like a study by an independent review board in December, was harshly critical of the State Department for failing to recognize and respond to security risks before four Americans, including the U.S. ambassador, were killed. But the new Senate report also spreads the blame more widely, finding fault with the Pentagon and White House.

The report is due to be released on Monday by the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. The Wall Street Journal reviewed a copy on Sunday.

Medical Evacuation - A UH-60 Black Hawk medical evacuation helicopter lands as U.S. Army paratroopers secure the area in Afghanistan's Ghazni province, July 23, 2012. The soldiers are assigned to the 82nd Airborne Division's 1st Brigade Combat Team and the helicopter crew is assigned to the 82nd Combat Aviation Brigade. The soldiers evacuated a wounded insurgent. U.S. Army photo by Capt. Thomas Cieslak

Afghan Forces To Take Control Of More Provinces -- Stars and Stripes

KABUL — Despite a major setback to the country’s air force and escalating casualties among its troops, the Afghan military will begin taking control of security in more than 50 additional districts across the country, officials announced Monday.

The next phase of the planned transition to full Afghan control of the country by the end of 2014, called “Tranche Four,” is to start within two months, and will include 52 districts in 12 provinces, though in nearly 20 percent of the districts mentioned, NATO’s International Security Assistance Force has already withdrawn all troops.

Fireworks, party poppers and champagne at the ready: join us as we celebrate New Year's Eve celebrations around the world.

• Australia welcomes in the New Year
• Revellers around the world prepare to celebrate 2013
• India's army cancels celebrations in memory of gang-rape victim
• Britain expects washout New Year as flooding countinues
• Record turnout expected for Hogmanay in Edinburgh
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Russia and China are working to modernize their strategic defence capabilities. However, they have chosen different approaches to replacing their key heavy missiles, notes Vasily Kashin, an expert at the Centre for Strategy and Technology Analysis, who compares the latest steps taken by the two countries to increase their missile defence potential.

Sergey Karakaev, commander of Russia's Strategic Missile Forces, announced that Russia is currently designing a minimum of two new types of intercontinental ballistic missile. According to mass media sources, one of the two projects is a giant liquid fuelled rocket called Sarmat, which is to replace the Soviet RS-36M "Voyevoda" system, better known by its Western name "Satan".

Leader: Kim Jong-il's embalmed body lies in state in the capital Pyongyang

Revealed: North Korean Leader Kim Jong-il 'Died In Fit Of Rage After Being Told A Major Dam Had Sprung A Leak' -- Daily Mail

* Tyrant ordered 'severe punishments' for those responsible before he died
* The secretive country had announced the leader died from a heart attack
* The leaking hydro-electric power plant was a flagship construction project

North Korean dictator Kim Jong-il died after flying into a fit of rage when he was told that a major dam project had sprung a leak, it emerged today.

The tyrant collapsed during a briefing about a flagship hydro-electric power plant but managed to order 'severe punishments' for those responsible before he died.

The secretive country had reported his death on December 19 last year - two days late - saying the leader suffered a heart attack while traveling on his personal train to a field inspection.

Erwin Rommel, also known as Desert Fox, was regarded as one of the most skilled commanders of desert warfare in World War Two

Death Of The Desert Fox: Rommel's Son's Account Of His Father's Last Moments After Hitler Ordered Him To Take A Cyanide Pill Or Be Arrested -- Daily Mail

* German general Erwin Rommel told his teenage son he had been ordered to kill himself by Adolf Hitler
* In a newly discovered letter, Manfred Rommel describes watching his father being led into a car moments later
* Rommel, known as Desert Fox, was accused of plotting to kill Hitler

A poignant account of the German general Erwin Rommel being led away to his death told by his teenage son has been discovered.

In a revealing letter written by Manfred Rommel, he tells of his father's last moments after he was ordered to commit suicide by Adolf Hitler.

His father explained to him he had to poison himself after being implicated in a plot to assassinate the Nazi dictator.

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My Comment: I am not shedding any tears for the death of Rommel. My background is Russian, and I know too well what the German Nazis and their Generals did in the former Soviet Union during the Second World War .... as far as I am concerned, Rommel got off easy.

Photo: Mohammed Ismail Khan, Afghan energy minister, has called for jihad against US forces. Getty images

Afghan Allies -- New York Post

Now even top officials in the Kabul government vow to kill Americans.

“The fate of the Americans in Afghanistan will be worse than that of the Russians,” Mohammed Ismail Khan warned in 2009. The same Afghan is now vowing to drive all “foreigners” out of Afghanistan.

More bluster from a Taliban leader? Hardly. Khan serves as Afghanistan’s energy minister, and is a key member of American ally Hamid Karzai’s cabinet.

In a videotaped meeting last month with jihadists in Herat Province, Khan slammed the US for bringing “American girls, white-skinned Western soldiers and black-skinned American soldiers” into Afghanistan. He called on the “mujahideen” to take up arms and attack them like they did the Soviet “invaders” in the 1980s.

Afghans Angry At US soldiers Who Drove Away In The Night Leaving Rent Unpaid -- The Guardian

Only sign of huge US base is pile of rubbish and broken vehicles – and a festering land dispute in a volatile province

US forces left behind piles of equipment, an unpaid rent bill and a festering land dispute that threatens to undermine the Afghan government when they moved out of a volatile corner of eastern Kunar province this year, local officials and their former landlords say.

The only clue that a base that dominated Pashengar village for years had been abandoned for good was the midnight rumble of a convoy of trucks. In the morning, locals found guards gone, buildings blown up and, scattered around what had been a forbidding military encampment, piles of detritus from years of western living in a remote, mountainous valley.

Sharing Lunch - U.S. paratroopers join Afghan soldiers in a traditional Afghan lunch following a combined clearing operation in Afghanistan's Ghazni province, April 29, 2012. U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Michael J. MacLeod

Afghan Troop Deaths Rise As Army Expands Its Role -- New York Times

KABUL, Afghanistan — The Afghan government has hit a grim record in its quest to take over the country’s security from coalition forces: more than 1,000 soldiers died in 2012, a roughly 20 percent increase from 2011.

Though the Afghan Army’s death rates have outstripped those for international forces in recent years, the new figures show the widest margin yet, as more and more Afghan units have taken the field. International forces were reported to have lost about 400 soldiers in 2012, the lowest number since 2008.

Super-modern, powerful and almost noiseless Russian nuclear submarine Vladimir Monomakh has been put in water to become the third ship of the Borei project. The cruiser is about to begin sea trials and mooring to become fully operational in 2013.

­Vladimir Monomakh was laid down at Russia’s largest shipbuilding complex Sevmash, located on the shores of the White Sea in the town of Severodvinsk in northern Russia on March 19, 2006 – the 100th anniversary of the Russian submarine fleet.

(Financial Times) -- The Opec oil cartel, led by Saudi Arabia, will pocket a record of more than US$1tn in net oil revenues in 2012 as the annual average price for Brent, the benchmark, heads to an all-time high in spite of weak economic growth.

The windfall will provide fresh capital to some of the world's largest sovereign wealth funds. United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, the most influential members of the cartel, are home to three of the world's 10 largest SWFs by assets under management, according to estimates by the SWF Institute.

With one trading day left before the year-end, Brent oil prices are on the point of seeing an average for the year of about $111.5 a barrel, higher than the previous all-time high set in 2011 of $110.9.

The benchmark closed at or above $100 every trading day in 2012, bar 24 in June and early July.

China Buys Tu-22 Production Line From Russia. A Major Threat To The U.S. Aircraft Carriers In The Region -- The Aviationist

For the third time in 7 years (first one being in 2005, second earlier in 2012) several websites in China (link in Chinese) are reporting that China and Russia have agreed for Beijing to buy the production line for the Tupolev Tu-22M3 bomber at a cost of 1.5 billion USD.

Once in service with the Chinese Naval Air Forces the Tu-22M3 will be known as the “H-10″.

The deal struck with Russia comes with 36 aircraft (and engines): an initial batch of 12 followed by a second batch of 24 aircraft are thought to be on order.

The Tu-22 will be employed in the maritime attack role and will be used to attack targets from low level (to avoid radar detection).

Read more ....My Comment: Wikipedia has more information on the Tupolev Tu-22M3. So .... for 1.5 billion USD the Chinese are buying the production line of an old bomber .... on the surface I am not impressed .... but the Chinese usually have a very good reason on doing such purchases .... and your guess is as good as mine on this one. On a side note .... if the Chinese start to mass manufacture these planes (and others) .... expect the arms race in Asia to heat up.

Vice president Nicolas Maduro tells Venezuelan people the president's health is delicate following cancer operation.

Hugo Chávez has suffered "new complications" following his cancer surgery in Cuba, his vice president said, describing the Venezuelan leader's condition as delicate.

Vice president Nicolas Maduro delivered a solemn televised address from Havana, saying he had spoken with Chávez and that the president sent greetings to his homeland. Maduro did not give details about the complications, which he said came amid a respiratory infection.

"Several minutes ago we were with president Chávez. We greeted each other and he himself referred to these complications," Maduro said, reading from a prepared statement. Maduro was seated alongside Chávez's eldest daughter, Rosa, and son-in-law Jorge Arreaza, as well as attorney-general Cilia Flores.

Russian Warship Heads To Syria In Preparation For A Possible Evacuation -- Times of Israel

Moscow officials have acknowledged that citizens will be pulled out of the country should Assad’s regime fall.

The Kremlin is sending another warship to the Syrian port of Tartus, where Russia has a naval base, Russian news agencies reported.

The reports Sunday by the ITAR-Tass and Interfax news agency cited an unidentified official in the military general staff as saying the Novocherkassk, a large landing ship, has set sail from the Black Sea port of Novorossiisk. She was “accompanied by a combat ship of the Russian Black Sea Fleet,” according to a Russian news source.

The Novocherkassk was the third vessel of its kind dispatched since Friday from Russia to Tartus, AFP reported, and was expected to arrive in the area in early January.

The reports gave no information on the ship’s intent. But Russian diplomats have said that Moscow is preparing a plan to evacuate thousands of Russians from Syria if necessary. The Defense Ministry announced two weeks ago that several ships were being dispatched to the Mediterranean.

WASHINGTON — In the final presidential debate, President Barack Obama declared to the American people with unflinching certainty that sequestration “will not happen.”

Two months later, the Jan. 1 deadline is looming, with no debt reduction deal in sight.

Now what?

How quickly and deeply will these automatic defense budget cuts totaling about $500 billion over the next decade hit troops, Defense Department civilians and contractors? And how much will they hurt?

Many experts agree: “The sky is not going to suddenly fall on Jan. 2,” said Todd Harrison, a defense budget expert at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, a Washington think tank. “In fact, we are likely to see hardly any impacts in that first week.”

President Obama says problems behind the Sept. 11 attack on a U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, resulted from mistakes, not wrongdoing.

"There was just some sloppiness — not intentional — in terms of how we secure embassies in areas where you essentially don't have governments that have a lot of capacity to protect those embassies," Obama said on NBC's Meet The Press.

Obama also said that investigators "have some very good leads" on who carried out the attack that killed U.S. ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans.

My Comment: I know that this is not a war/defense/military related post .... but it is a cool pic. The moral of the story .... there is always someone out there that is bigger, stronger, and meaner. Hmmmm .... come to think of it .... I just described how some combat scenarios.

Afghan police instructor Tarek (far right), conducts a training exercise in Mazar-e-Sharif. As the withdrawal of Western troops approaches, such efforts appear to have been insufficient. Andreas Ulrich/ DER SPIEGEL

German officials have been training police in Afghanistan for a decade, but a visit to their training center in Mazar-e-Sharif creates major doubts about the effectiveness of the mission. Afghan police remain poorly prepared to tackle the mighty challenges they will face as Western forces withdraw.

The Afghan national sport is called buzkashi. It's a game in which horsemen battle over a goat carcass. There are no established teams.

During a match, the competitors forge brief, continuously shifting alliances. They only work together until they have gained a short-term advantage. The game can last for hours, even days. The winner is the rider who manages to carry the carcass to the goal. Buzkashi is a mirror of Afghan society.
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My Comment: No one said that this was going to be easy, but you would think that after 11 years of war and training Afghan's security forces .... we would have something more to show for it.

(Reuters) - President Barack Obama offered strong support for former Republican Senator Chuck Hagel as the potential next U.S. defense secretary but said in remarks aired on Sunday that he had not yet decided on a nominee for the Pentagon post.

Hagel is considered a leading candidate to replace outgoing Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta, but the former Nebraska lawmaker has come under criticism for his record on Israel and for a comment that being gay was an inhibiting factor for being an ambassador.

"I've served with Chuck Hagel. I know him. He is a patriot. He is somebody who has done extraordinary work both in the United States Senate, somebody who served this country with valor in Vietnam," Obama told NBC's "Meet the Press" in an interview taped on Saturday and broadcast on Sunday.

Insurgent Firefight - An Afghan soldier directs fellow soldiers during a firefight near Combat Outpost Giro while a U.S. Army paratrooper fires on insurgent positions in Afghanistan's Ghazni province, May 17, 2012. U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Michael J. MacLeod

The security transition from NATO troops to Afghan security forces which started last year is due to complete in five phases following a pre-planned organized program.

Despite Afghan security forces are in charge of over 75% of the Afghan soil security, Afghan officials are continuously expressing concerns regarding the lack of proper military equipments which creates challenges for the Afghan security forces.

The joint U.N.-Arab League peace envoy says he has a proposal to end the 21-month conflict in Syria.

Lakhdar Brahimi said Sunday in Cairo after meeting with Arab League officials he believes his plan, based on an agreement signed in Geneva earlier this year, "could be adopted by the international community." He made no further comment on the proposal.

Brahimi said something needs to be done soon because the situation in Syria is "getting worse by the day."
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About Me

I have been involved in numerous computer science projects since the 1980s, as well as developing numerous web projects since 1996.
These blogs are a summation of all the information that I read and catalog pertaining to the subjects that interest me.